Apple debuted three Memoji-Themed ads for Apple Music on YouTube ahead of the Grammys telecast.
The ads feature country music duo Florida Georgia Line, singer/songwriter Khalid, and singer/songwriter/actress Ariana Grande.
The Grammys will be broadcast by CBS on Sunday, February 10th at 8pm ET / 5pm PT.
Florida Georgia Line + Memoji
Song: “Simple” by Florida Georgia Line
Listen now on Apple Music: https://apple.co/FGLSimple
Khalid + Memoji
Song: “Talk” by Khalid
Listen now on Apple Music: https://apple.co/KhalidTalk
Ariana Grande + Memoji
Song: “7 Rings” by Ariana Grande
Listen now on Apple Music: https://apple.co/Ariana7Rings
MacDailyNews Take: A bit of good old-fashioned manufactured controversy doesn’t hurt, either. Run the Ariana Grande ad multiple times during the broadcast, Apple!
https://twitter.com/ArianaGrande/status/1093627013762506752
https://twitter.com/ArianaGrande/status/1093627215600734208
https://twitter.com/ArianaGrande/status/1093628016398221312
Perfectly encapsulates the state of Apple Music vis a vis popular culture.
Jobs will be known for the Mac, the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad, and his philanthropy through his wife’s efforts.
Cook will be known for animojis, memojis, killing off iPods, ignoring the Mac, crashing the stock to a tune greater than 600 billion dollars, killing off the 30-pin connector to start his trillion dollar dongle gouging business, pricing products greater than three to four times their values, failing to update products, hiring incompetent sycophants just like himself, using the CEO platform to campaign for gay rights, shoving his political beliefs down the throats of Apple employees, failing to innovate Apple products, ripping off consumers by removing product functionality and making us buy it back via dongles and predatory margins, starting pricey litigation wars with just about every company he’s done major deals with… and the list goe on and fucking on
You’d think Apple would put it’s resources into something more important. Emoji’s are not going to update my products, performance and quality control are lacking at apple.
Yes, those people working on Emoji should instead be working on the OS, because the talents required are exactly the same. Insert eyeroll here.
if they are different then maybe they should hire fewer emoji makers and more OS people?
I’m not just spewing here, i actually have reasons to say they need to get onto the real job of OS etc :
Besides things like the FACE TIME BUG:
Examples:
–I got an new iPad Pro, Great Hardware. But as many people including pro tech bloggers running businesses have said the issue isn’t the hardware but the software. The OS still needs a ‘Pro’ version. File system, linking up to external devices etc need help.
— iTunes is still a mess after years of user complaints. It’s store, it’a a hub, it’s an interface ?… it’s a mess.
— Search in iTunes , iBooks, Apple store etc way less powerful and easy to use than certain areas of Amazon etc. Suggestions of related products not very good. Sometimes customer gets lost in interface.
Please note this directly drives sales.
— Apps like Pages, Notes have not been seriously updated for a while. I use MICROSOFT OneNote (!) because it’s more powerful. A guy who cut his teeth on Mac CXll which my dad bought me using Msft now … ! OneNote is simply way more powerful than Apple Notes.
Why are they writing EMOJIs when Pages, Numbers etc are still at Kindergarten stage?
— The MacOS finder in some ways is less powerful than versions in the past. In the past you could customize the finder sidebar extensively for example. In many areas the OS has actually slowed power users.
— Crippling of components like Nvidia GPUs. With TB3 now in some macs and eGPUs available, users should be able to load many different GPUs instead of the few by Radeon. But according to Nvidia Apple is not even responding sometimes (Nvidia does all the heavy lifting with the drivers but needs Apple’s OK ). Are Apple support playing with Emojis or are they trying to limit user choice to make more profits ?
— Same with developers at the Mac App store. Some have given up saying response from Apple support is hopeless.
— Every time an OS version is released, numerous serious bugs are found. At least with latest Mac OS they admitted it and said the release was a bug killer version. Still we iOS has a FaceTime bug.
etc
OK,
so Apple pulls out all the stops for emojis. Fine, grammy’s are popular.
BUT:
Recently was the Mac’s 35 Anniversary.
Macs are Apple’s second largest money maker, makes more than iPad, more than TV, AirPods, Watch, Beats etc COMBINED.
Except for a single Tweet from Cook there was zero marketing for the 35th Anniversary of Apple’s Second Biggest Product ! The original icon of Apple (even MDN is named after it !)
No Anniversary video, no ads, not even cheap web ads, no store promotions, no interview or even comment from (millions earning) Ahrendts or Schiller head of Retail and Marketing . Not even a Banner on the website! No Marketing from Apple. Nada. Zilch.
The stock is still down, sales in certain areas down by 30%, revenues down and yet Apple does not try to Sell it’s hardware !
If Apple had played it right, some newspapers and hundreds of blogs would have mentioned it (“It’s the Macs 35th!”), multiplying the ad spend. But nope Cook, Ahrendts etc couldn’t care less.
The Macs just made 7 billion bucks the last three months, imagine if they actually tried to sell them.
(SEE I DIDN’T EVEN MENTION JONY IVE, HEAD OF PRODUCT INNOVATION. I DON’T EXPECT HIM TO CARE A RAT’S AZZ ABOUT MAC. HE HASN’T TALKED ABOUT THAT PRODUCT IN YEARS — go look through his dozens of interviews on the Campus ceiling tiles, furniture, on diamond rings, coffee table book, Christmas tree, plants for stores etc and try to find one on Mac )
everybody is pulling their hair on esoteric reasons on why sales and the stock is down, fighting over tea leaves about China, trade war, currency issues etc.
While those reasons might be contributing factors, at least half the problem is INTERNAL and obvious (see my post above).
Apple seems to have forgotten it’s primary focus on driving real innovation in hardware software and pushing them out.
Apple management is indulging in HOBBIES.
Cook on Social Work.
Cue on parties and falling asleep during Siri Meetings.
Jony Ive on furniture and diamond rings etc.
Ahrendts on fashion (she’s going back to work in a fashion house… ) (and yeah Retail is now going to be run by a ‘operations’ and not sales driven person… )
etc.
ok we’ve got Memojis AND but we also got an embarrassing FACE TIME BUG (which got reported in every news site… )
Maybe they got too many high paying software guys indulging in THEIR hobbies writing emoji’s etc vs checking actual software?
we’ve got a Macs delayed (Mini updated after 4 years, Mac Pro not since 2013), Charging pad delayed etc.
Amen! Amen! Amen!
As you articulated perfectly DW, the priorities of Apple today are very disconcerting. Guess it’s to be expected when a gay San Fran liberal is running things appeasing celebrities from music to movies.
I have no problem with liberal outreach to growing markets. What I have a major problem with is EXACTLY as you stated DG, barely a whimper of the Mac that BUILT APPLE on the 35th Anniversary! Unbelievable neglect on the part of CLUELESS Cook.
The only people that believe an iPad Pro can replace a PRO WORKSTATION, NEVER worked on a PRO WORKSTATION. Let this ridiculous pipe dream DIE once and for all!
Shifting gears, I noticed Davewrite post on Friday, February 8, 2019 – 5:48 pm
“everybody is pulling their hair on esoteric reasons”
Judging by the misspellings and bad grammar I SUSPECT you may have a low life imposter on your tail. On Thursday I had an imposter that posted exactly as GoeB, responding to me yet it was not me.
Alerted the MDN webmaster and the offending imposter post was taken down…
Exactly what you should have done, GoeB. Websites can’t combat impersonation, plagiarism, identity theft and wrongly propagated memes or fake news, unless users actively participate in protecting our common communications channels from these forms of abuse.
We can’t depend on the geniuses who developed channels like Facebook, Google or Twitter to be sensitive to us. They are sensitive to money and that’s it. That’s human nature. Only when a user outcry occurs do they sense a threat to their bottom lines, and then they make a mealy-mouthed apology at best.
Users, voters, individuals all have to face the facts that in a world dominated by aggregated social media, we are constantly exploited for the gain of unknown corporate entities. Government is doing little or nothing to help. As individuals abandoned by government and corporations, we must look out for ourselves.
As for Apple leadership, well you know the landscape changed big time in ten years, and some of us old-timers had our tools discontinued. To a craftsman, that really hurts. I had to recalibrate, and adopted Windows 10. But I never really gave up on Apple — they had the real mojo once and still had a chance to rule once they got over their monomaniacal romance with the smartphone.
They haven’t, not quite yet.
I’m still waiting for that promised “modular Mac”. If it turns out to be just a souped-up cheese grater, I’d be OK with that. Except Apple can’t help themselves, they have to do something spectacular, so it will be something brand-new. I must say, they are taking seemingly forever to deliver something that they so earnestly promised. Then again, I wonder if Apple’s promises should be considered as sacrosanct as those of General Douglas MacArthur, who pledged “I shall return.” He did, and the US won World War II.
I am beginning to think quite seriously that Tim Cook is too fond of the iOS and its related devices, or does not understand or feel comfortable with anything but the iOS (consumers’) gadgets.
It would be good for Apple and T/C too if the iOS-related business is separated either as a separate division or a company and give it to Tim Cook. Cook is also sitting in the Apple BOD and he will try to keep his way. Let him enjoy what he enjoys, and someone else runs the rest of Apple, a real Apple.
“Let him enjoy what he enjoys, and someone else runs the rest of Apple, a real Apple.”
Exactly, KenT. Cook can pretend his iPad beats a Mac Pro and play around with emojis and other kid stuff he likes. Stand aside while a real leader runs Apple and brings it back to innovation and Mac greatness…